howitzer

The version with liftarms looks better.

Looks like another set that would be really interesting to build, but not very interesting to own or to play with. I don't think the building experience + parts can justify the price tag though, so I probably will never get this set. I've got to say though that some of the geometries in the build are pretty impressive and the driving capabilities also seem pretty nice. Now I want to see you pour a large box of mixed Lego on the floor and have the Cat push it around

Yeah, unfortunately I don't have any EV3 equipment, only the RI set (51515) and a bunch of other PU stuff. The lack of extension cables makes it quite hard to build anything large with it, though I guess there might be some third party cables that are compatible.

Nicely done, very good movement! I also tried to build a bird automaton a while ago, but I used totally different mechanism and couldn't get the kinematics right so I abandoned the project. Maybe I should try again though...

I wondered about your cabling, as these things tend to require wiring for motors in far away locations, and the aforementioned pharmacy robot would also require that, which has been one of the problems that I hadn't solved yet with it. So apparently custom cabling is required...

These kind of projects are really cool, it's just that they also tend to be very large and require tons of parts, so it's a huge investment to build one. A while ago I was working in a pharmacy with a storage robot system and I began to wonder if it would be possible to build a similar machine from Lego. Basically it has a lot of shelves in which the medicine boxes are stored, and the computer knows where each box is and can both, take them in and deliver them out to the counters for pharmacists to give out to customers. The entrance was a series of conveyor belts where transit containers (with medicine boxes in them) were poured and then the belt system oriented them correctly, identified each box and stored them in an appropriate place. Non-suitable stuff was ejected, and inside there was a picker which delivered the "orders" made by pharmacists. I wonder how difficult it would be to build this kind of machine?

If you paint them, they will become worthless as far as resale value is considered. Beyond that, it's you Lego, do with it whatever you want.

New Elementary is definitely one of the very best Lego sites out there, and their articles on new parts are always very interesting, even when it concerns parts I have otherwise little interest in. When it comes to Technic though, other reviewers tend to do better job in looking at the set itself, as understanding a Technic set requires someone specialized in those.

Not a channel for reviews or news, but Brick Experiment Channel is really great.

Yeah, well, that's using the already weakest gear type in a way it was not intended to be used, making it even weaker. So that's not really an option, I'd much rather have a proper spur gear which allowed this kind of meshing.

Those can't be used like spur gears, so no. But I guess if there was a 14 tooth spur gear, it could be used, but as long as we only have gears that have teeth numbers in multiples of 4, it won't be possible.

Cat is MORE BIGGER YELLOWER yellow.

I have actually been annoyed about a similar thing: if you want to create two "arms" connected directly by two meshed gears, they will never be at the same angle in relative to the centerline. Though I'm not sure if it's even possible to do with only a single kind of gear.

I think it could be possible to extract a parts list from 3D file and just cross-check it against the allowed parts list, but it's of course very difficult to ensure that the actual, physical model is made only from those parts. Maybe if there was also a requirement to provide build/disassembly photos which showed every part and their places. Huge amount of work to mods either way. Maybe for this kind of contest it would be best if there were no actual prizes, to discourage cheating.

I assume each participants could still choose their own colour scheme? The parts count would have to be pretty low, like you're suggesting, so that it could actually be checked that no more parts are used than the ones allowed. Or maybe a 3D-model or instructions would also have to be included (though checking through them is an enormous amount of work for the judges).

No problem! It's true that availability is one thing and collecting enough of the parts for it to be actually usable in MOCs is another matter...

I don't think orange is exactly a rare colour anymore, most parts that you would need for exterior are easily available in orange today. After some checking it appears that among the modern panels only 3x5x3 curved is missing, and among liftarms only 1L and 2L are missing (though 2L is available with axlehole), along with thin 5L and 7L.

I'm a bit baffled by the decision of TLG to make separate Technic hub with 4 outputs and standard batteries, and also to make a 6-port hub for Mindstorms with rechargeable battery. I mean, the battery of course makes the latter more expensive (both to manufacture and to ship) but why not design a single 6-port hub with a standard battery holder that can be replaced with a rechargeable battery? Then just ship the Mindstorms etc. with the rechargeable battery and Technic sets without and sell it separately. The two additional ports make such a difference with versatility, and the ability to upgrade to rechargeable battery would probably make a good bit in sales.

Thanks for the review, @Jim. Awesome photos as always! Of all the reviewers out there, I think like your work the most. As for the set itself... well, maybe I'll get it if I find a great discount, but otherwise not my cup of tea.

It's not just containers, but also things like cardboard used for packaging that's gotten more expensive and of course electronics too. Sadly the rising costs might be real reason behind the pricing of this thing, which puts TLG in a difficult position: they can't sell it for less but people think it's overpriced and won't buy it as much.

Yeah, because it's impossible to turn them fast enough for it to matter :D

Yeah, there was discussion about this in the Contro+ topic. You can control the Technic hub with Pybricks, but setting it up is a bit of a hassle.

Ah, right :D Yeah, the remote falls short on having an actually wide usefulness, more buttons would be great, not to mention joysticks for proportional control...

Indeed. I can see why they wouldn't have wanted to include another hub for more motorized functions, but in that case a manual adjustment of the ripper would've been nice. Even having something that wouldn't pretend to be an actuator (liftarm or something) would've been better, those fake actuators just look really cheap in the place of proper ones.

I don't know what you mean by rare, it's included in PU train sets, and also available separately both directly from Lego and from Bricklink. Not too expensive either, I just bought one for like 10€...